There’s a lot more to forests than trees

Why forests are so important

Our little blue planet is actually pretty green! Almost a third of the Earth’s surface is covered by forest. And forests aren’t just full of trees – they’re teeming with all kinds of life. Forests are home to over half of the world’s land-based animal and plant species, and around 300 million people.

Not only that, but our planet’s fantastic forests reveal new, hidden secrets about themselves all the time. Every year we’re discovering animals, plants and insects that we never knew existed. For instance between 2010 and 2013 more than 400 ‘new’ species were found in the Amazon alone!

Forests are so crucial, for all of us. As well as providing food, shelter, fuel and income for around a billion people, forests also produce a lot of the oxygen we all breathe, and regulate rainfall and climate patterns around the world.

But our forests are in crisis. Our planet has already lost nearly 40% of its forests in the last three centuries – and we're losing 33,000 sq km each year - that's roughly five football pitches a minute! Only 17% of what’s left has any kind of proper protection.

Help us keep our forests alive!

Will Ashley-Cantello
Chief adviser for forests

“The more I learn about forests and the wealth of life in them, the more I feel inspired. I’m lucky to work with fantastic teams around the world whose hard graft is protecting threatened forests and helping the people that depend on them. There’s a long way to go, but we’re making hard-won progress.”

Forests we work in

Challenges affecting forests

Forest loss and damage

Huge swathes of the world’s forests are being destroyed every day! Usually for agriculture, for the timber, or industrial development. Sometimes it’s legal, often it’s not. In the end most of it is unsustainable.
The basic problem is that not enough value is placed on the natural environment – it’s often seen as more economically viable to cut forests down than to protect them. We’re working hard to change that view and help create green economies that improve peoples lives and keep forests standing.

Challenges affecting forests

Climate change

Forest (mis)management is also at the heart of climate concerns – not just because burning or cutting down forests adds to planet-warming greenhouse gases (like CO2) in the atmosphere, but because rainforests themselves are vulnerable to global warming too. It’s the ‘negative feedback loop’ – the more forest is lost, the more temperatures rise, which causes more forest to die...
But by regrowing forests, this can help take CO2 out of the atmosphere and could be one of the best solutions to climate change. We’re working on several fronts to help tackle the causes and impacts of climate change.

Challenges affecting forests

Food and farming

Rising demand for food – especially soya beans, palm oil and meat – has led to so many forests being lost to agriculture.
Brazil has become the world’s biggest beef exporter, and the second-largest exporter of soya beans, mainly used to feed cattle. That’s been disastrous for forests like the Amazon.
In Borneo huge areas of peat swamp forests, where orang-utans live, have been converted into farmland to produce palm oil – which ends up in our processed food and household products (crisps, soap, you name it).
We know that food and economic growth are essential and desirable, but we are promoting sustainable food production and consumption, and green economies to tackle climate change and protect wildlife at the same time.